Oscillation-receiving device.



G. W. PICKARD.v

OSCILLA TION RECEIVING DEVICE. APPLICATION FILED )ULY 24. 1911.

1 .1 86.0%. Patented Apr. 20, 5v

iv mm I 5 mm w-to-z I To all whom it may concern PICKARD,

GBEENLEAF WHITTiER PICKARD, 0E AM 'sBUaY, MASSACHUSETTS, assrenoa ro WIRELESS SPECIALTY APPARATUS COMPANY, or NEW YORK, n; 2., A coaroaa 'IION OF NEW YORK.

. OSCILLATION-RECEIVING DEVICE.

msaoaa.

. Be it known that I, GBEENLEAF a citizen of the .United States, of America, and a resident of Amesbury, Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Oscillation-Receivingi Devices, the principles of which are set forth in the following specification and accompanying drawing, which disclose the form of the invention which I now consider the principles of the invention maybe embodied. i

This invention relatesto wireless telegraphy detectors of the rectifier type, as now well known in the art, the object being to T improve the electrical, stability of the de- *,vice.

The inventionconsists in employing, in cooperation with the rectifying substance, another substance in contact therewith which possesses peculiar properties which result in very greatly improving the electrical stabil- 3 ity of the device which includes the rectifymg material.

Of the drawings, Figure l is a vertical section ofan apparatus embodying the invention, an Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken transversely throu h A, B, Fig. 1..

Electrical instability has been a wellknown fault of the rectifier type of detector. That is, it has been found in practice that electrical currents or oscillations materially stronger than those of. received signals, and such as static or atmospheric, and even received signals themselves when the sender 1s m closeproximity reduce or even totally destroy therectifying power ofa detector in a given contact dd: a serious thing incommercial telegraphy, because it requires anew .contact a,djustment, which it maynot be possible to. obtain until after a large part of. the message has been lost. I The. present I invent on removes that fault by I producing 'a combination which remains in ,operati'veadjustment under substantially all conditions which have previously caused instability. I

Ijhavefou-nd that the unvention is best executed =b empldv n'g as the substance in contact .wi-tnthe rectifying able brittleness, such that at material, a conduct-or which is characterize by cons1derall times there Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed July 24., 1911. Serial No. 640,106.

Wmrrnin to the detector, tend to Patented Apr. 20, 11915.

is presented to the' rectifying material a suit ably small point of a rough or unpolished surface resulting from the fact that-the brittle substance breaks oil? by use instead of becoming smooth or polished. Further than thispresent hypothesis, the reason is as yet obscure why, for a given adjustment, such class of materials makes the invention produce electricalstability, but'it seems to be due to the fact that a suitably small contact can always exist. The fact'is that all the materials which produce the desired result are characterized by extreme brittleness,-and

all of them I have found so far are included in a peculiar new class (brittle) of the materials classified by Mendeljeif in his wellknown period-law table. However, I do not wish to be understood as asserting that-the brittleness necessarily has any essential'relation to the operation. Specifically the ma-' terials most useful within the invention, are the following conductors, i. e., the metals arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), and bismuth (Bi), the best of which seems to be As. On reference to Mendeljeffs table, it will be seen that all these are comprised in group V, and in the odd'numbered series therein; 21.6., As is in the fifth series of group 5, Sb is in the seventh series of roup 5, and Bi is in the eleventh series of group 5. The materials under the even-numbered series seem not so well adapted for use in the invention, although of course I desire to include in the claims, all materials which are so adapted in greater or less degree. However, the materials'which now seem most useful under the invention, are included in said special class of Mendeljefis group 5 and are characterized by extreme brittleness, as well as. by other properties, among which are that most immediately, and I do not assert that the tarnish has anything to do with the action of the device. The rectifying material which'up to the present time I have found to be most usefully employed in combination with these brittle conductors, is the element silicon, and particularly whenused with a substantially rough or unpohshed surface, such as an ordinary fracture face,

in contact with the brittle conductor such as arsenic, etc.

The drawings show a detector-holder of substantially the construction shown in my prior Patent 912,726, dated Feb. 16, 1909.

The rectifying material S, such as silicon,

and the cooperating conductor A, such as 7 extent as may be due to the tarnish on their Hence their function is substansurfaces.

, tially limited to that of furnishing a stable contact for the other or rectifying member;

although it would not be a departure from the invention to employ a. material which also rectified in addition to executing the functions of the cooperating contact mem bers of the invention.

Of course the invention may be embodied in various mechanical forms, and by way of illustration, reference is here made to another desirable form, which consists in employing one of the brittle conductors, such as arsenic, as the sleeve 7 (.or as a lower part of, such sleeve) of Fig. l of my prior Patent "836,531 dated Nov. 20, 1906. Preferably a. small mass of the arsenic is soldered or welded to the lower end of the sleeve 7, and the contact surface of the arsenic rough ened as by making a fracture'face.

The invention is not of course limited to the elements arsenic, etc., butincludes all materials which possess the properties of the same which are useful in the invention;

and such materials may include conducting chemical'compounds or alloys which. possess such properties although the constituents thereof might lack such properties.

he expression rough surface in the claims, implies, as stated above, that the operative portion is probably a single point,

effectively projecting fromsuch surface.

I claim:

1. As a receiving device for wireless telegraphy oscillations, the combination with a member containing silicon, of a contacting member containing the metal antimony.

2. As a receivingclevice for wireless telegraphy oscillations, the combination with a member consisting of the element silicon, of a contacting member which contains the metal antimony.

' 3. As a receiving device for wireless telegraphy oscillations, the combination with a member consisting of the element silicon, of a contacting member consisting of the metal antimony. i 4. As a contacting member for a receiving device for wireless telegraphy oscillations, one member of which contains the element silicon, a member containing the metal antimony.

5. As a receiving device for Wireless teleg raphy oscillations, the combinatioii' with a slllconmember, ofan ant mony member having a rough surface in contact with said silicon member.

6. As a receiving device for wireless telegra-phy oscillations, the combination with a silicon member having a rough surface, of an antimony member in contact with such surface.

7. As a receiving device for wireless telegraphy oscillations, the combination With'silicon and antimony members having rough sulilfaces respectively in contact with each 0t er. r

GREENLEAF wmrrmn PICKARD. 

